Snow Day!!!

yeah... we had fun.

Rock a Baby

She has found my weakness. Mama can't put down a sick baby.
That's right. Mama will rock a sick baby until she falls asleep - even at 4 in the morning.
Because that sick baby has a hard time falling asleep when it hurts her to suck on her pacifier due to thrush. Poor thing. The sure-all sleep inducer paci is no match for painful mouth sores.
God love the poor thing. To the doctor we go - a little later today of course.
'night all.

Twenty-Four

Hours in a day.
Hours without good sleep - oh wait, what's sleep?

Yesterday I turned 24. Yes, world I'm one step closer to the grave.
Matt mentioned over a crableg dinner (heck yes), "For a few months you will be two years older than me." He let the silence of that statement fill the air. "Cradle robber."
That's right friends, I have robbed the cradle TWICE. And I'm not giving either back.

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful 'birthday' despite a wonderful evening out alone with my husband. But the day was filled with wonderful things. Matt and I enjoyed stealing his Dad away from work for a while. We found a pair of glasses that Matt and I both like to replace Matt's 6 year old pair. Due to circumstances I attempted breastfeeding in the car (awkward, but successful). We had Rachael's 2 week weight check (9 lbs, 3 ounces of sweetness). And then came a wonderful trip to Red Lobster while my mom and dad watched our little one. I enjoyed the uneventfulness, I'm not going to lie.

I guess birthdays get like that when you get older. It's not always going to be the five year old hype of balloons and party hats. Matt asked me what I wanted for my birthday after the poor thing couldn't find what he wanted to get me within the realms of a realistic budget. It's kinda sad but I couldn't come up with a single thing I wanted all day long. I'm not really sure why that is. But Matt's ideas of presents that he revealed to me that failed to work out sounded wonderful. And I honestly couldn't think of anything else that would be a fun birthday spoiler. I mean we could have gone for the practical of replacing my seriously dying hairdryer (for the whopping twice a year that I use it to keep from getting hypothermia on a "running late" day) or replacing my running shoes that I stretched out with my swollen prego feet. But there's something about replacing items that we would have otherwise replaced that makes it not really feel like a birthday present. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just psycho.

Thanks for the "Happy Birthday" Jes and Aunt Yvonne. It was quite nice not to have to prompt you both or have a tag-on 'happy birthday' after someone close to you spilled the beans in a crowd of people.

Anyway, twenty-four doesn't feel any different than twenty-three did. But it does mean one thing, while having a baby and a husband and a wonderful home I am one step closer to being responsible enough to rent a car. Oh the pride!

Alrighty, it's 4:15a and Rachael has finally decided to stop screaming. Time for a few hours of sleep before the 6am feeding. That's right friends, Rachael is learning self-soothing and not getting what she wants after she's already gotten what she needs. And I am learning to finally cave into napping during the day - despite wanting Rachael to cave into napping at night. =)

G'morning/night everyone.

What a Wonderful ...

Yesterday was great! Matt was off and we got to spend most of the day with my Aunt Yvonne and Mom. We enjoyed some unusual "usual routine" of showering, diapering, and other getting readying in the morning. I woke up with a headache that I chose to ignore for most of the day, but eventually got the best of me in late afternoon. Matt was his wonderful self, entertaining in my absences of feeding and pumping. We all enjoyed a trip to Walgreens to print off some pictures for my Grandma that Aunt Yvonne will get to take out to California when she boards her second plane trip on Sunday. Then we headed over to Babies R Us to grab a couple of helpfuls. Then Starbucks called the depths of my Aunt, which much to Matt and my enjoyment resulted in a couple of hot coffees, my cold banana chocolate milkshake thingy, and a happy ride home in a warm car. Dakota had some good bonding with Aunt Yvonne and then we parted our ways.

After my nap, the headache backed off just in time for dressing up and going out on the town. That's right friends, we're rebels. No, we didn't go clubbin' (surprised) but we did go out for a nice, NICE dinner at the Melting Pot with Ron, Ellen and John. We decided to dress up for the affair - afterall when you spend more than $100 in a night's meal it's cause for some more-formal wear. So with the joy of "fitting" into two non-pregnant shirts that I haven't worn in FOREVER, we prepped to leave. Matt put Rachael in a cream sleeper and the cream spring 6/9 month sized dress that Ellen and Ron got her. She looked adorable and I look forward to getting a copy of the pic of her and John (in sweater vest, dress shirt, slacks, and black dress shoes) that Ellen took at the dinner table. It was adorable, absolutely adorable, to see the two newborns all dolled up for the sheer enjoyment of their torturous parents.

Dinner was an amazing fondue pot experience that lasted a speedy 2.5 hours. It was so wonderful to just sit and chat with Ron and Ellen about life. I just love spending non-stressful, lookout for the kids time with them. They're such wonderful people. And non-distracted time is hard to come by with them so it was so wonderful. Rachael was a bit fussy, but she was bearable. John was knocked out the whole time. And the cheese ... and the steak... oh and the chocolate... heaven, friends..... whew!

And then the night ended in my all-time favorite way - just talking with Matt for a while in the dark in our bedroom. He's so nice to fall asleep with. And I just love it when he pours out his heart right before bed. And then Rachael slept for 6 hours again last night. So lovely, friends, so lovely.


"And I think to myself... what a wonderful day (and night)."

Wisdom

"Therefore, in light of the great host of witnesses we have before us..."

A humble thinker comes in many shapes and forms over the years and inspires others to pursue that which really matters when the lights go down......

- blessed by much today.

Eleven to Five : Fifteen

That's right, we got a "full night's sleep" (according to pediatricians last night. Way to go Rachael! She was out cold with no grumblings that couldn't be curbed by self-soothing. And then to top it off she slept her usual 3 hours after a 5:15a feeding to allow a whoppin' 8.5 hours of rejuvenation for her Daddy and Mommy. Oh yes, world, we've got a good one and we're not trading!

And I also pumped a whoppin' 5.5 ounces of liquid gold last night. That's right, friends, I filled that little bottle and have six feedings stored in the fridge. Guess it's time to start asking Lydia how exactly I should freeze this stuff.

Awake times have increased, including morning and evening awake patterns for approximately an hour. Yay Rachael! And it's fun to watch her explore her world - studying faces and things.

Anyway, that's how things are going here. Just simple
and finding a good routine.

Alrighty, off to a little cleaning and breakfast for myself.

Looking forward to Jackie visiting for a while today and Aunt Yvonne visiting and Matt's day off tomorrow. Oh and then there's the Melting Pot outing with Ron and Ellen. (We will never eat so lavishly and expensively again!)

The church has also so graciously signed up to start bringing dinners by for Matt and I. Thanks again, Lydia (if you actually read this) for setting it all up with such joy and ease.

It's All Yellow

Just wanted to post this picture of Rachael's first official outing to, sadly, the pediatrician's and then the Urgent Care lab for a Jaundice testing. She was less favorable of the heal stick at the urgent care than the pediatrician's visit in which she was stripped to a diaper and poked at. She did surprisingly well with the doctor's trip after Daddy held her in a bear-hug and read to her while we were waiting for the doc - she loves her Daddy so much (he has the great calming affect on her when he puts her on his chest). And for those who were counting along with us, Rachael broke her Jaundice count right on the verge of needing some home incubation. So despite the two heal sticks within the first 4 days of life, Rachael passed one of the most important tests thus far. And we all hope for her sake that her next outings will be much less traumatic.

Morning Sunshine

Waking up content is a beautiful thing. And the value of the state of awake without direct correlation to a demand feeding is also wonderful. Many wonder how kind Rachael is to Matt and me regarding sleep. Giving you the average amount of sleep for a newborn to grace their parents with I do believe will help Rachael's cause. A newborn sleeps an average of 2 hours at a time. Rachael has slept between 3-3.5 consistently (barring no extra gaseous problems) since birth. But last night after a midnight bought with "working out her diaper" she slept for 4.5 hours. To the single and married without children world, this amount of sleep may seem to feel unGodly or aweful. But to one who has been getting up every 2-3 hours to pee for the past month and a half, I rejoice and thank God for the opportunity to "oversleep." And then to top it off we had some good awake and feeding time this morning.

It's as if she woke up today and said, "I'm one week old today so that means it's time to hit some milestones in survival."

Gratefulness cannot be expressed enough.

=)

All Home

Thank you, Lord, for bring us all home safely. Thank you for helping Rachael to make progress toward passing her jaundice. Lord, I pray that our efforts to get things cleared through her body will bring back reward at her visit today. Lord, I thank you for educated and dedicated medical staff who helped bring Rachael into this world. Lord, I thank you for your provision during the pushing stage of labor. Lord, I thank you for the amazing family and friends who so graciously offered their words of love and support. Lord, I thank you for the friends and family who eagerly looked past my exhaustion and said such kind words of encouragement and joy at the hospital bed. Lord, I thank you for the miracle of life and the reminder that you are in control.

And Lord I thank you for bringing Matt, Rachael and I home - how desperately we wanted to be at home- and I thank you that you made it all work out that both Rachael and I were released despite some medical concern for the both of us I (my blood levels and Rachael's jaundice count0. And Lord I thank you that you are healing us both with rest and recuperation. Thank you, Lord, for Dakota doing well with the adjustment and shift of attention.

Thank you, Lord, for Matt's love and compassion. I see You shining in him as he cradles Rachael and has such great patience with her learning. Lord, I thank you so much for Mom's willingness to come take care of me and support Matt and i as we learn to best take care of Rachael. Thank you, Lord, also for Daddy's humor and love that he has lavished on Matt and I through random house projects and delighting in Your work. And Lord, the list of thank you's could go on and on regarding the endless love and support and encouragement that our family has already received and will receive. Thank you, Lord for Matt and Rachael who sleep so soundly across the hall. Thank you, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

-first night home-

Sunday Night Contractions bring...

Monday morning baby.

Announcing ...

Rachael Elizabeth

born Monday, January 5 at 3:33am.
She was 8 lbs and 14.9 oz. And 21.25 inches long.

She has big feet and a full head of brown hair that is very easily styled into a Mohawk.

I think she has her daddy's nose. Daddy says she has my beauty. And we're just happy as anything that she appears to have our easy-going-ness.

As of this post time she is officially over 24 hours old and going on 48 hours old. According to doctor's reports we all should be going home tomorrow "after breakfast."

As for the laboring, we went to hospital Sunday night at 6:30p after an hour of consistent 3-5 minute contractions, but very minimal pain. (I just wanted to see if we had advanced anywhere from the Monday 1 cm reading. The measure me at 1cm at the hospital and 80% effaced. After an hour of observation I measure at 1 cm and 80% effaced. But thanks to my high blood pressure spike they had to do some blood work on me before they could discharge me to go home. When the blood work came back 2 hours later they decided to check me before making the final decision of whether or not to admit me. I measured at 80% effaced, but a whoppin' 5 cm of dilation. That's right folks, I went from 1 cm to 5 cms (in what should have taken some 5-10 hours) in 2 hours. And yes, you all, I was definitely feeling the contractions at that point. I decided with little effort that I would like some kind of pain medication. They gave me Nubian (or however you spell it) to "take the edge off the contractions). After dilating to 7cms in another 2 hours I happily received an epidural and advanced to 9cm in about an hour to an hour and a half. After that I sat at 9cm for about an hour and then hit 10, was pushing, and had Rachael out in 43 minutes. So total hospital birthing time was 9hours and 3 minutes (and if my math break-down doesn't add up then take into consideration that we really were in hospital active labor for 9 hours and 3 minutes via admittance records and I just felt a bit fuzzy after the Nubian).

There were some bleeding complications with me after Rachael was pronounced as doing great, cleaned up, and introduced to me while they did an hour and a half of stitching attempts. Then I was moved to the OR where I received another hour of stitching and a thoroughly big does of epidural medicine to coax me through it. I spent 6 hours in recover - wanting to see my daughter- while Matt witnessed Rachael's bath and caught a few hours of much-needed sleep. I caught a few hours of sleep, finally was cleared to go to my family, and then Matt and I had some baby time and sleep time.

I really can't describe to you the incredible joy I felt being rolled down the hallway to go see my daughter for the second time. I was bed-ridden for the rest of the day - primarily sleeping and attempting to recover. And then today at 11:30am I was cleared to pee on my own, remove the IV and shower to feel like a person again. Today has been such a wonderful day in comparison to the amount of pain and emotional stress of yesterday. But you know what? Rachael was totally worth it. TOTALLY!

Today we spent the whole day just hanging out with Rachael. And it felt like we were actually going to take her home tomorrow - and that she was ours. But there was still the newness of remembering her name during sparatic questions and all the newness of the beginning realization that we are now officially parents in a nine hour sweep of quick labor.

So thus ends the pregnancy story of Rachael.
And thus begins the greatest adventure of our lives - named Rachael Elizabeth.

"hello world."

Friday's Findings

Announcing for the first time ever the gender of our baby...

haha, fooled you. And you thought we'd actually find out.

Well, what we did find out was the following:

1. Baby's squished in there nice and tight with minimal movement (and no showing of gender with continually squished up frog legs and fist blocking the tell-all - again modesty prevails).
2. Baby's measuring at 8.5 lbs plus of minus 1 lb for error. AKA, our baby could be anywhere from 7.5-9.5lbs, but is currently averaging out at about 8.5lbs of educated guessing based upon leg, arm, stomach and head measurments. The ultrasound lady said baby's stomach is measuring a bit bigger than average babies during our current weekly status. - Whatever that means.-
3. Baby's heartbeat is about 136-137 beats per minute (normal and healthy).
4. My blood pressure is good (thus far).
5. And any and all other results will be further discussed during our Tuesday Dr.'s appt (provided that I don't pop beforehand - which in that case the stats won't really matter).

Didn't actually see a doctor on Friday so I have no idea if I've advanced any in dilation or anything. But the ultrasound lady said baby's head's really far down there and repeated that a few times when trying to get a good picture. (In my mind the further the better. BRING IT ON!) So we just keep on trucking here on the homefront with packed bags by the door. I have started feeling much more sore than usual and a couple other more anatomical signs are popping up to notify me that soon baby will make it's debut.

I'll keep you all posted as further joys arise. Take care everyone!

the endless topic you're tired of reading about...

So I finally got around to packing a hospital bag. We were supposed to have one packed "just in case' at latest at 36 weeks. So here at 2 days shy of 39 weeks I can proudly say that my hospital bag is packed. Why is it packed? Well because today is Friday and on the very small chance that something were to happen today I don't want to show up at the hospital with only the shirt on my back. Baby's bag, on the other hand, has been packed for a few weeks - that's right... priorities.

It's still kind of weird to me to think that labor and delivery will happen quite soon (keep in mind that soon is a relative term at this point). Some of the foreign aspect of having this baby revolves around the fact that i have yet to really understand what a contraction feels like. According to others, this is a common reality. Renee and Ellen both stated, among others, that they were unaware that they were contracting until being linked to hospital monitors. It does bring to mind one question though... How will I know it's time to go to the hospital if I'm not sure what a contraction feels like? - Oh, you'll know. I've been told. Okay then! "Are you contracting yet?" Matt has frequently asked me over the past few days. "Nope," I tell him, but I'm not sure if I'm right or not. I just wouldn't classify the weird tightness in my stomach and random crampings as contractions. But again, it's the blind leading the blind. I guess I could tell him more fully that I am or am not contracting once we're holding the baby. ;-)

Almost all is in place for baby when baby comes home. We've moved the bassinet into our room (which is an odd sight during my nightly pee breaks). Odd how much that bassinet appeared to ft in the nursery, but still feels so out of place - and yet in place- at bedside. I just have to redress the guest bedroom bed and then we'll be all set for my mom to come and baby to come home. All other little details like getting a baby bathtub and changing pad we can work through later. =) Yeah, yeah, yeah... we'll be just fine.

We realised yesterday, as we were hanging out at the in-law's house, that if I were to go into labor this weekend, Matt's family would need to come home early from their vacation (if they wanted) and could potentially miss the laboring part. This weekend's Michigan Family Christmas. which Matt and I will not be embarking upon due to overly obvious reasons. We hadn't given any thought to the whole 'his family not being here' aspect of the spontaneity of labor. But I am sure it will all work out according to God's plan. Which in other words means that I am sure of nothing in this plan, but that a baby will be born at some hour during some day or night. And yet knowing nothing can bring such peace and normalcy with the knowledge that God is in control of it all.

Anyway, I better get ready for today and head off to work. I've got a few things to pack into the car before I go to work, sheets to put on the bed, trash to get out, and breakfast to eat. I'll keep you posted on today's updates regarding the ultrasound and all. Have a great day, all!